Diversity in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix brings the concept of the “melting pot” to life with it’s cultural diversity. The United States is founded on this principle so we wanted to highlight the diversity of this city and share with you some of the awesome and diversified lifestyles you can find in Phoenix. From authentic Italian food made by a family that moved out here from Italy to a Moroccan nightclub founded by an individual that’s actually from Morocco, Phoenix has a little bit of everything.

We wanted to start off by saying that Phoenix definitely has some more upscale and exclusive neighborhoods. In fact, right downtown close to where they have First Friday off of Jefferson St. and 7th Ave., there is a neighborhood surrounded with mansions and picturesque landscaping. Literally 5 minutes down the road heading West, you’ll find a group of subsidized housing that is known as the “projects” in some other states. We wanted to point this out because some people that have more money and are considered upper class kind of shy away from Phoenix because of the rap it gets for criminal activity. This neighborhood that we just mentioned is actually one of the neighborhoods with the least amount of crime in the state so it’s probably not as bad as you may think.

Even though there are some upscale neighborhoods close to downtown Phoenix, we don’t want you to get the wrong picture that everything is peachy in the downtown area. While the more popular areas in and around Chase stadium in downtown Phoenix are very safe and heavily patrolled by police, once you start heading to the outskirts of downtown crime increases drastically. The reason for this is because of the huge drug cartels in Phoenix. Phoenix is one of the biggest drug hubs for the cartels smuggling drugs up from Mexico because it’s conveniently located about 2 hours north of the Mexican border. The drug runners bring the drugs up to the city than disperse them all over the country through various methods of transportation. With any drug trade comes violence which is what a lot of the Phoenix locals see on the news everyday. The good thing is that if you’re not in a cartel, you’re going to be able to avoid a lot of the crime and danger of being in such a city. The bad thing is that innocent bystanders are sometimes the victims of this cartel violence and while it’s sad to see, it’s just a part of the lifestyle of living in Phoenix.

Please don’t get discouraged! We just wanted to pain a vivid picture of the realities of living in this metropolitan city. Aside from the high amount of crime which is usually only targeted at people in rival cartels, Phoenix is still one of the most diverse and beautiful cities in the country. In the beginning of this post we mentioned unique Italian food and a unique Moroccan club. These are just some of the many authentic experiences you can have while visiting of living in Phoenix. People from all over the world with entrepreneurial spirits setup shop in the heart of Arizona with hopes of sharing their ideas and culture with the Western world. We feel blesses to be able to have such wide diversity where we live, and we hope you do to.